Day 13, 2021

Fort Churchill State Park to Washoe Lake State Park, Nevada
We pulled into Fort Churchill State Park on Thursday morning and by late afternoon the park was almost full. We were at 100% by Friday night. This place was a real Army Fort back in the 1800’s. Pretty cool.
We spent Thursday and Friday just enjoying nature. Dinky Dawg had tons of fun chasing the lizards, as did Miss Bristol. It was funny watching her try to get them. Dinky Dawg ran over and jumped on me to tattle on her every time she went after one. (I actually believe he was just mad because I wouldn’t let him off leash outside of his fence.) Saturday brought rain showers, so we were inside most of the day. Finally broke down and fired up the generator and tried to get the TV going. Could only get one of the three satellite’s, so we couldn’t watch the Nascar race. 😥 We tried listening to it on on the computer, but we kept loosing the cell signal, so we missed most of the race.
We tried the satellite again on Sunday, thinking that maybe the storm affected the signal. Nope, still only one satellite instead of the 3 we were supposed to get. But then we figured out that we could watch it on the Fox Sports App. But of course, the cell signal was bad again, so we decided to go for a drive and explore the area. We checked out the other campground in the park, which is nicknamed the 4 wheeler campground. We could see why when we drove down the very rutted road. Glad we didn’t have the trailer with us.
We then went to Lahontan Reservoir State Recreation Area and got another stamp in our Parks Passport. That’s 11 so far. Four more and we get a free annual pass. Sweet!
Then we went into Silver Springs to stock up on a few groceries. Found a small chain store and got almost everything on our list except for produce. I asked a clerk if there was a grocery store in town where we could pick up some produce and she gave me a blank stare. “What kind of produce?” You know like those exotic things, no one really eats. No, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onions, you know, regular staples. She didn’t know, but asked someone else that was shopping and they suggested the Liquor Store?!? I said “don’t you have a grocery store in town?” Didn’t seem to know what I was asking. Strange. Lee asked the cashier where they bought their groceries and her answer was “we just stock up”. Very strange.
Went to fill up the truck with gas while we didn’t have the trailer and I went to the liquor store (seriously, it was a small grocery store that happened to sell liquor). The only onions were in a 3 pound bag, which is way more than we can store, so I asked another shopper if she wanted the extras, as I couldn’t use 3 pounds. She said that she could always use onions, although I think that she thought I was some kind of weirdo. So 3 onions and 3 Roma Tomatoes, (no lettuce available) cost me $5.49. Don’t you just love small towns? Good thing our camping is free.
We went back to town on Monday and did the laundry. Yes, we still have to do the basic things even when we are on vacation. We took Dinky Dawg for a ride in the Side by Side when we got back from town. Boy, he sure loves that thing. We got dusted out but had a great time. On Tuesday we rode our bikes around the park and checked out the museum and the ruins. The history of the fort was cool. I saw a Lizard sitting on top of a sign that gave the rules of going through the ruins. I took a photo of it because he looked like he was a guard enforcing those rules.
We decided to leave on Wednesday, even though we could have stayed another day because the next park showed that it filled up fast every day, and we figured that we would have a better chance of getting a spot on a Wednesday. It was about an hour and a half down the road, which made us happy since we had a strong head wind almost the entire trip. We went past the cutoff for Virginia City, and went through Carson City, Nevada’s State Capitol. We also went past another State Park, but didn’t stop because we wanted to get the trailer parked.
Found a great spot at Washoe Lake State Park that has electrical hookups so we can use our space heater and save our propane. Glad to have them, since a storm has rolled in and they are calling for temperatures down to 32 degrees and a chance of snow showers. Brrr….